The Enterpreneur-ship

 "I wish to own premises like this one," I said to Rama sipping the 'cutting' tea. 

He laughingly asked, "What will you do when you grow up?" 

"I have a business plan, I will open the first music centre of the city along with the regular milk supply and the paper supply, like our 'shet' does." I replied proudly.

"Wow.. that is amazing yaar. You will give me a job na?" seriouly, he asked.

Those were the days when I was a milk delivery boy and a paper delivery boy. My day started at 5:00am. Though the body wanted to sleep for a few more minutes, the mind wanted to become a rich man of the city. Having 100 litres of milk on each hand, I used to go walking to each of the 200-250 houses delivering milk. Some households had fixed requirement, while many of the chawl house owners purchased on cash basis daily. The challenge those days were not carrying 100 litres of milk but the dog barks and dog chases. Each day, there would be a new strategy from both ends, mine and theirs. I would use different routes to confuse them, deliver milk and run away. The dogs faced only one hurdle, they had restrcited area, and they never crossed that demarcation. I won all the battles those days as there was never a dog bite story.

After returning back to the shop, the owner would hand over newspapers to be delieverd to another 50-60 houses in the vicinity. This was a tougher job as the people reading newspapers preferred to stay at the top floors of the building. I had made a mental note that people with reading habits stayed in high floors in practical life. So, if someday I got to purchase a flat for myself, it would be on the top floor of the building only, I noted down in my mental dairy (today the situation is quite different, I stay at the ground floor of a building)

It is correctly said, "You are known by the company you keep." Being along with Rama (today, he is a great personality as well), I always had this dream. That shop which I wanted to purchase was 100 square feet and my owner used to run a paan shop. Though my dreams were small, the virus of entrepreneurship entered my viens and I was pretty convinced to start my business in the future.

All these events happened for over 2 years during my schooling days. As I passed SSC with decent marks, my circle of friends changed and having cleared my HSC in flying colours, I entered into an arena which proved my strength - the teaching field. Even before I realised, I started delivering lectures to the students of XI and XII. The best part for me was my acceptance as a teacher by my students.

I was fortunate enough to learn under the guidance of Shri. Shete Sir. That was the turning point of my life and my lectures used to be a mime of what he spoke in the classroom during lectures. I consider myself lucky to be called as carbon copy of my teacher. Its said that, "When you stay at the feet of a great GURU, you become a great person yourself". These words proved to be true in my real life and I became a successful teacher.

After delivering lectures at my chawl house and completing formal education of graduation & post-graduation, I could purse the professional degree of Chartered Accountancy. At the age of 25, I had travelled a long way in my professional career. I was fortunate to sign an agreement for puchase of 1700 square feet area for my business venture and unknowlingly I had exceeded my dreams by 17 times. I became an 'Entrepreneur'. This was the miraculous beginning which helped me acquire many such heights in practical life.

Today at the age of 46, when I look back, I find to have retained the basic qualities of honesty, hardwork, consistency, thinking out of the box, and many more positive values of entrepreneurship. Though the world had made me conscious of many other factors of life, the 'entrepreneur' which was born in me at the teenage is still surviving, navigating through ups and downs of the journey of this wonderful 'ship' called life.

It gives me immense pleasure to note that the quality of social responsibility imbibed with me due to the financial conditions I faced during childhood days has been a light house in guiding my life. I understand I owe much more to the society. Many factors are responsible for this realisation, the prime being my acceptance as a entrepreneur by this wonderful society.

This 'real' me is an inspirer in the 'reel' life as well. The journey continues.....

PS : During my college days, photos were clicked only when we went for a picnic and this is one of such rare occasions. Our picnic budgets were as low as Rs.25 per person. A separate blog on picnic plannings to follow soon.......